Extraction Resistance

“Leave fossil fuels in the ground and learn to live without them” is a simple principle that can guide us out of the current maze where we keep making the climate crisis worse and worse.

If you want to solve a problem, you should go to its root. With climate change, the root of the problem is the burning of fossil fuels. There are some other contributors to global warming, but the key is that we dig and pump up oil, gas and coal and burn it. This has become so widespread practice in the last decades, that for most people it is difficult to imagine that one could live in a different way, because we were born and raised in the fossil age. But this fossil age has to come to an end as quickly as possible, in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. With our climate targets, namely 2°C or even 1.5°C maximum warming, there is no leeway for continuing the fossil society.

Complete decarbonization has to be swiftly accomplished over the next two-three decades. And it sure can be!

Even conventional reserves are so plentyful that we will pass critical thresholds if we extract all of them. On top of that, the fossil frontier is currently pushed further and further in the form of extreme extraction such as fracking, tar sands, Arctic drilling, etc. If we allow this, even more people will get “carbo-addicted” (mainly by constructing infrastructure that relies on fossil energy, not a physical addiction). This is crazy and must be stopped. We already know better. Zero carbon lifestyles have not only been the standard for most of human history, they are also fully in our reach with a dedicated effort to transforming our cities and lifestyles. This is a common task to our generation.